Saturday, December 31, 2016

NTB to promote Nepal in Europe

As a rehearsal of ‘Visit Nepal Year 2018’, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) today launched a programme to promote Nepal in Europe in 2017 during an event organised to mark its 18th anniversary. The board also said it made the announcement as part of promoting Nepal as a tourism destination and with the aim of bringing a maximum number of tourists from European countries.
The ‘Visit Nepal-Europe campaign 2017’ campaign aims at increasing the number of tourists from European countries by 30 per cent to 40 per cent compared to 2016.
The NTB has said that the campaign will also develop necessary groundwork for promoting the country’s tourism all over the world in the year 2018 as part of ‘Visit Nepal Year 2018’ that the government had announced recently.
“To make the ‘Visit Nepal-Europe 2017’ campaign a success, NTB will collaborate with Nepali missions in Europe, Nepali diaspora and travel and tour operators in Europe,” said the chief executive of the board Deepak Raj Joshi. "We chose Europe because tourists from the 28-nation bloc have significantly contributed to Nepal’s tourism industry and we hope the inflow will further gather momentum through this campaign," he added.
Joshi also explained that virtual campaigns such as #NepalNOW and Facebook posts had significantly helped the Nepali tourism industry to rebound faster than the national economy after the Gorkha earthquake.
The coordinator of the campaign Deepesh Man Shakya, who is also NTB’s honorary public relations representative for Ireland, on the occasion said that a tourism promotion programme has already been planned for Ireland, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Russia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Denmark.
Nepal Tourism Board, through its ‘Honorary Public Relations Representatives’ in different countries in Europe, will work in collaboration with Nepali diplomatic missions and the Nepali diaspora there, and with local friends of Nepal in Europe to make the “Visit Nepal - Europe 2017” campaign successful.
NTB has been planning to officially launch the campaign in London in March next year.
According to the tourism board, it has designed some programmes under the campaign like photo exhibition, talk on mountaineering, ‘Send a friend to Nepal’ campaign, tourism promotion through Nepali restaurants in Europe, Buddha Jayanti and Everest Day celebration in Europe, FAM trips for travel tour operators and media, and training for Nepali diaspora to promote Nepal’s tourism, among others.
Speaking as the chief guest at the anniversary function, Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Jeeban Bahadur Shahi pledged his cooperation in the campaign.
Likewise, hotel entrepreneur Karna Sakya on the occasion said that directly or indirectly, the Nepali diaspora has significant potential to help Nepal’s tourism industry, and stakeholders should bring them on board.